Moonswallowed
by Empatheia
Summary: -Jiraiya x Tsunade- He wakes her in the middle of the night to go drinking and stargazing. She is not impressed.


**A/N: **Written for the February round of flashfics on LiveJournal. Fluffy for the most part, but kind of depressing at the end. Contains spoilers for recent chapters.

Enjoy!

**xxxxx**

_**Moonswallowed**_

**xxxxx**

It was very, very late.

Dusk was hours past, but dawn was even further off, and Tsunade had only just managed to fall asleep scant minutes ago after a long and unfairly painful day. She knew instantly who had woken her, because no one else could spirit a stone through a closed window-- without breaking it-- and make it land with perfect smug precision between her breasts.

Despite her bone-deep exhaustion, she rolled out of bed, staggered to the window, threw it open, and screamed down into the street below. She didn't care if she woke anyone up. It would serve them right for enjoying their blessed rest while she was being forced into a highly unwilling state of consiousness. "I am going to _kill you_," she roared at the blurry patch of white three stories down. "It's dark, I won't see the blood, don't think I won't do it."

Had she been less tired, it might have been nostalgic to be woken like that. He had learned the window-bypassing trick by waking her like this countless times during their youth to sneak out and go drinking while Sarutobi-sensei's back was turned.

It was, however, decades later and she was not in the mood.

"Sorry, Tsunade-hime," he called back up teasingly, "but it's urgent. Come down?"

She snarled wordlessly. "What's so goddamn urgent that it requires waking me up in the middle of the goddamn night?"

There was no answer, only an expectant silence. She threw her hands in the air and surrendered, began searching for her clothing in the dark because it was faster and easier than searching for the lamp. She could see fairly well now that her eyes had adjusted anyway. It only took her a couple of minutes and one stubbed toe to make it downstairs mostly-dressed and half-composed.

Jiraiya was waiting for her in the entry, leaning insolently against a pillar with his eyes shut. He smiled upon hearing her approach and stood up to meet her. "You look fantastic," he said, not quite managing to hide his smirk.

She starting throwing punches, not chakra-enhanced because she was quite fond of the building but powerful enough in their own right. He only dodged most of them.

"Calm down, Tsunade-hime! I meant it. Disarrayed by sleep, the golden halo of your hair falling about your--"

The rest of his predictable ode to her beauty was muffled around her fist. "You said this was important," she growled lethally. "What is this about? It had better be good, or rest assured you'll be using a cane to walk for the rest of your miserable horny life."

He mumbled something incomprehensible. She removed her fist, and he tried again. "Sake calls," he explained with a rakish grin and a wink.

This time she forewent her fists entirely in favour of driving her knee into a couple of extremely painful places. "You woke me up at dark o'clock in goddamn morning to go _drinking?_ Nothing's even _open_ at this time of night... morning... We just went drinking this afternoon, that's why I'm so wiped... I am going to _kill you._"

His irritating smile faded and he met her gaze solemnly for the first time. "Please, Tsunade. Just come out with me."

There was a strange note in his voice that was oddly familiar to her, nostalgic, but she couldn't name it. Whatever it was, she hadn't heard it for a very long time. It made her uneasy. "All right," she said, "but if this is just another one of your stupid whims, you will die. I promise."

He smiled sadly, with a wry twist to his mouth, and murmured something she didn't catch before saying "I'll leave deciding that up to you." He raised his right hand, which had been out of sight behind him until that point, revealing a beautiful green bottle she recognized as very, very expensive sake. "For now, listen to the siren call of our erstwhile mistress."

"Shut up," she grumbled, but followed him out into the night.

He led her up the cliffside behind her headquarters, eventually stopping somewhere she recognized after a moment's scrutiny as the top of the First Hokage's head. "It's the smoothest," he explained with a grin. "I'd sit on the Third for symbolism and irony and whatnot but his hair is a bit inconvenient."

Tsunade, completely resigned to being awake by now, laughed despite herself. "Well, there's some symbolism to sitting on my grandfather too," she pointed out.

"So there is," he agreed equably, then produced two delicate sake cups out of nowhere. "Here's to you," he said, filling hers and handing it to her.

She knocked it back with practice ease and enjoyed the way it coursed down her throat, melting her tense muscles and warming her belly. "Good stuff. Now, remind me again why we're up here when I could be sleeping?"

Jiraiya was silent for a moment, uncharacteristically grave and staring out across the sprawl of Konoha. "It's hard to explain," he said quietly. "I just had a hunch that tonight was a good night to go drinking."

"You're creeping me out, toad-boy," she teased to cover own uneasiness at the tone of his voice. "I thought we agreed that with all my money on you dying, you were going to come back alive. This had better not turn into some 'this time is different, I might not come back no matter how much money you put on my death, let's have a teary, passionate goodbye so I don't have any regrets' kind of irritating speech."

He straightened his spine and poured more sake. "You know me too well. But no, that's not what this is about. Tonight is special. Something's going to happen and I wanted you with me to see it."

She stared at him suspiciously. "You realize how suggestive that sounds, right? Be careful, we're a long ways away from the bottom of the cliff and I'm in a bad mood."

Jiraiya laughed. "I promise, once and for all, that's not what this is about. Just a few more minutes now, just wait."

Not entirely mollified, Tsunade snatched the sake bottle out of his hands and poured herself two shots in quick succession. If she couldn't sleep, she was at least going to take advantage of the fine liqour he was providing. Her coffers were fuller now as the Hokage, but not so full just yet that she could go out spending lavish amounts on high-quality moonshine.

It was a cool night, but there was little wind or cloud cover so the sky was clear and liberally drenched with stars. Since Jiraiya was miraculously not in a talkative mood, Tsunade turned her face upwards and watched them wheel dizzyingly overhead. The moon was blinding, a shade far brighter than merely white, completely full but for an odd shadow on its leading edge. The unease in the pit of her belly wouldn't go away.

"Ah, here it comes," Jiraiya said suddenly after about twenty minutes, startling her. "Look at the moon carefully."

Tsunade frowned and focused. The shadow on the edge was bigger now, as though the moon was traveling through its cycle from full to crescent within moments. "What is that?" she asked, confused.

Jiraiya smiled with satisfaction. "Lunar eclipse," he explained. "Keep watching."

Above her fascinated eyes, the shadow grew to swallow the moon until it was entirely covered with a strange reddish hue like a copper coin. It looked fey, unsettling, and gave off very little light. The colour reminded her of dried blood on white linen, a battle colour. It made her want to cry, but at the same time was very beautiful.

"I don't know how it works," Jiraiya murmured into her ear, "but it's pretty, yeah?"

She wondered when he'd gotten so close. One of his arms was planted on the stone behind her back, his propped arm supporting her back, and her shoulder was leaning unconsciously into his chest. It was an old, familiar position, and she was too tired and drunk and nostalgic to pull away.

"Yes," she agreed mistily. "Not sure it was worth getting up for, but yeah, it's pretty."

Had he been any other man, had they had any other history, this would have been a perfect moment for him to pull out a cheesy line and try to kiss her. In the odd mood the moon had put her in, she might even have allowed it, might even have kissed him back a little. He wasn't, they hadn't, and he didn't try. They simply sat on the stone monument overlooking the town they had both sworn to protect and watch the moon die.

A few minutes later, the shadow faded and the pristine glaring white returned.

"More symbolism," she muttered, halfway asleep again and almost completely lying in his lap by that point.

Jiraiya stroked her mussed hair fondly-- something she would have punched him for under the light of day-- and grinned down at her. "You know me, I love my symbolism," he cracked.

"Ass," she retorted half-heartedly, then yawned hugely. "Can I sleep now?"

She felt his nod rather than saw it, because her eyes had closed on their own.

"All right. Go to sleep. I'll carry you back to bed, and I even promise not to do anything debauched. Just because I'm feeling that generous tonight."

An insult. She needed a comeback, something clever and witty to say to that, but her mouth wouldn't work and her eyes wouldn't open. She made an unintelligible sound and burrowed into his warm chest instinctually as he scooped her off the rock.

"You weigh a ton," he commented. "That chest of yours must add forty pounds."

She would kill him for that when she woke up... but wait, there was something wrong with that, how could you kill someone who wasn't going to be there? Her heart gave a funny twist, but she was too far gone to inspect it further.

He carried her back down the cliff face and returned her to her bedroom, doing absolutely nothing more debauched than planting a great kiss on her forehead just before leaving. "See you soon, Tsunade-hime," he said, and was gone through the shadowed doorway.

Tsunade dreamed of a hundred times she had gone drinking with him, a hundred thousand fond insults, and of several that hadn't happened yet, but probably-- _definitely_-- would whenever he got back.

By the time she woke up, the moon had set and he was gone.

**XxxxxxxxX**

**A/N:** -cries- If he's actually dead, Kishi, I will PITCH A FIT. YOU HEAR ME?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it:D


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